The Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy canceled school Thursday after the city’s health inspector confirmed Wednesday afternoon that bugs a teacher found in a classroom were the same kind of insect that have cropped up in four other properties this year.

Although the city typically sees between seven and 10 cases of bedbugs each year, this is the first time one has come up in a nonresidential property, Health Inspector John Carlson said. And this is the fifth confirmed case of bed bugs in the city in the past three months, meaning there have already been half of the maximum number of cases that are typically reported in a year.

This discovery prompted Health Inspector John Carlson to realize that bed bugs are not just a residential issue:

“This has certainly opened my eyes to the fact that this may not be limited to houses only,” Carlson said. “It has certainly made me realize the need for health officers to be vigilant in the community — not just in houses but we also need to look at this in restaurants and in other public assembly areas.”

Bed bugs are not just a problem in homes. They can, as school administrators discovered, pop up anywhere there are people.